3d printing
Take Out The Trash
I’ve been expanding my range of 3D printed products again. These bins will be useful in adding detail to dioramas, or for parking 1:32nd scale cars beside.
1:35th scale Land Rover roof rack
I took a break from writing about zombies and vampires to do a bit of designing for 3D print. Having recently bought the Italeri 1:35th Land Rover Series 3 109″ hard top kit, I want to design some suitable accessories for it. The first is this roof rack. It looks simple enough, but it was painstaking work getting all those uprights and cross members aligned.
Of course, once I have my Landie kitted out with survival gear, I’ll probably be putting it in a post apocalypse survival diorama. So I didn’t really get away from zombies at all.
3D printed model cars for OO gauge
Not some of my 3D designed products, but definitely ones of which I approve. Digitawn has designed a load of variants on popular cars (all Fords so far, I think) from the 60s to 80s. Originally available in 1:87th (HO), they’re now also in 1:76th (OO).
My first car was a Mk2 Escort estate, and, as far as I know, this is the first time it’s been available in this scale. There are some very good diecast models available, but they don’t have the variety of versions that Digitawn offers.
Christmas is coming!
Gift-giving time is almost upon us, so, I would like to point you to the places you can buy Spinneyhead stuff.
Obviously, you can buy my books, or Garth’s, but they’re exclusively digital. Buy them as a treat for yourself.
If you want physical presents to give away, there are a few places you can go.
I have a store hosted by Zibbet, where you can buy cards, buttons, badges and cufflinks made from coins, odd, naughty boxes, and vintage items.
I’m selling antique postcards on Delcampe, as well as stamps, slides and other interesting stuff.
A selection of my photos are available as prints from DeviantArt or Redbubble.
You can get 3D prints of stuff I’ve designed from Shapeways. It’s mostly model rail related stuff, but I’m going to be adding new designs as soon as possible.
I may have forgotten some of the places you can get my stuff, I have tried out all sorts over the years, but these are the main ones I use at the moment.
1:32nd scale gesturing hands
I’m going to start designing more stuff for 3D printing soon. Here’s one of my existing products. For use with 1:32nd scale/54mm figures, they bring an extra range of gestures to your models.
Machined bullets for 3D-printed guns could make them practical weapons
3D printed guns have had one major drawback- the materials they’re made from don’t hold up well to the stresses created by an exploding bullet. The plastic cracks and the barrel or receiver becomes useless quickly. One developer has found a way around this by machining thick walled shells with the bullet an inch or so inside them, which act as little barrels to contain the explosive force. They have to be machined individually, but the raw material is cheap and they can be reloaded after use.
Bullet could make 3D-printed guns practical deadly weapons (Wired UK).
3D printed drones
Need a cheap drone for a mission tomorrow? Just print one out.
We have 3D printed keys, guns and shoes — now a research team at the University of Virginia has created a 3D printed UAV drone for the Department of Defense.
In the works for three years, the aircraft, no bigger than a remote-controlled plane, can carry a 1.5-pound payload. If it crashes or needs a design tweak for a new mission, another one can be printed out in a little more than a day, for just $2,500 (£1533). It’s made with off-the-shelf parts and has an Android phone for a brain.
Perfectly modern sex toys
Just over a decade ago, I polled the Spinneyhead extended family and we came up with a list of features to build into the perfect sex toy. I never got around to creating said toy (or toys, some of the features were mutually exclusive), but a surprising number of the suggestions have been incorporated into toys which are now available, such as this high-tech selection that Wired has had a look at.
Build yourself a house with mini-bots
There have been other robots designed to 3D print buildings, but they’ve all had to be bigger than the final structure. These mini-bots- and their mobile supply trolley- aren’t restricted in the same way. They’re more likely to be building sturdier temporary structures at first. I could see rescue teams turning up at the site of a large disaster and using these sorts of robots to put a hospital up within a few days, for instance.
These Cute Little Drones Could 3-D Print a House | Design | WIRED.
The evolution of 3D guns
3D printed weapons are a scary prospect, and their development from idea to prototype to ever better versions has been typically fast. I was a relatively early advocate of the power of 3D printing, but even I wouldn’t have predicted practical firearms becoming a possibility so quickly.
How 3-D Printed Guns Evolved Into Serious Weapons in Just One Year | Threat Level | WIRED.
Christmas gift ideas from Spinneyhead
Not long to go until Christmas, so, if you’re unsure about what to get your friends and family, may I suggest a couple of online shops.
Buy my handmade, art and vintage stuff from Zibbet, or get 3D printed models from Shapeways. All cool stuff, some of it using the most modern of methods, some old school.
And don’t forget, if you have a Kindle you can buy my books from Amazon (and Garth Owen’s as well).
3D printed N gauge bus shelters and OO gauge bikes now available through Shapeways
I’ve been working away on some 3D stuff, and you can now order N gauge (1:148 scale) bus shelters and OO gauge bikes and more from Shapeways.
There should be more new designs going up in the next few weeks.
Greater Manchester Police seize 3D printer used to make guns in raids, as well as crack cocaine, £2m of counterfeit goods, lethal weapons and high-powered cars – Manchester Evening News
Component parts of what could be the UK’s first-ever 3D gun were seized in Greater Manchester’s biggest-ever crackdown on gangs.
Police and other agencies have been involved in around 100 raids during a week of hush-hush operations, with more expected this morning. Fifty people have been arrested so far.
3-D scans turn fossils into print replicas
Nearly 20,000 fossils in Britain have been scanned and uploaded onto the Web, allowing the public to download them and print intricate replicas.
Thousands of prehistoric fossils have been rescued from dusty museum archives and made available online by the British Geological Survey as highly detailed 3-D models.
Researchers and the public can now access almost 20,000 virtual fossils and print 3-D replicas. There are also plans in the works to digitally scan dinosaur fossils.